https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEAKsaQOCpQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEC-8GFTP4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLzk6FAb9bI

I think it’s a bad crutch that’s overused and removes too much of the humanity in vocals. Some of the most beautiful moments in music are when things are a touch flat or sharp (on purpose). That said, it’s a tool and tools can be put to good use or abused. I’m sure it’s been done well in some songs.

Nice voice to waste on elevator music.

I had to look it up to find out what it is.

Auto-Tune was originally intended to disguise or correct off-key inaccuracies, allowing vocal tracks to be perfectly tuned despite originally being slightly off-pitch. The 1998 Cher song “Believe” popularized the technique of using Auto-Tune to distort vocals. In 2018, the music critic Simon Reynolds observed that Auto-Tune had “revolutionized popular music”, calling its use for effects “the fad that just wouldn’t fade. Its use is now more entrenched than ever.”

So it makes voices perfect? Sorry, I like Janis, Rod Stewart, Kim Carnes, Joe Cocker, Melissa Etheridge, etc. au naturel.

I don’t get the point.

do you know you asked this almost verbatim in Jan 2021? Nothin’ wrong with that…just sayin’

I don’t see how that song remotely sounds like elevator music. But to each their own

I like a lot of pop synth.
That’s auto tune central.

@rockfan I laud you heartily on your comment that music is indeed a matter of personal preference. However, it strikes me as particularly notable that someone with your monicker finds this song appealing. Frankly, you need merely listen to the passages without the voice to appreciate the product too lame for an elevator. I first thought it suitable as perhaps an anesthetic, but it is useless in that application for the simple reason that the music forces your concentration on its bland and tired insistence. It’s worse than boring.

I’m a big fan of Imogen Heap and I like quite a bit of Post Malone – both heavily auto tuned.

Also…

Sam Sparro
Black & Gold

Clean Bandit
Rather Be

Empire of the Sun
Walking on a Dream

Big Data
Dangerous

All great songs. I dare you not to dance to them.

I could go on.

@HP Not all music that you don’t personally like is elevator music, dude. I’m hesitant to call elevator music an actual genre. But it definitely has its own sound. Which this song is not.

My take on this is that someone very high up in the service wished not to allow the precedent that the secret service could not be trusted to overhear or see the personal behavior of its charges. The Service has a spotless reputation for maintaining silence on the failings and inappropriate behavior of its clients. Otherwise those clients might well impede the Service’s protection in preference to privacy. You notice that it is not the Secret Service that reveals Trump’s behavior, regardless as to how stupid or even illegal it might be.

@HP

I listen to a wide variety of music, everything from classic rock to hip-hop, jazz, blues, electronic, country, metal, dance and pop.

The song appeals to me because of the ethereal sound, it has a theatricality to it that I love.

It’s fine a s vocal effect but not as a “talent booster.”

Digital tools, whether in art, music, design, or television & film, are only that — tools.

When they are solely relied on as a means of expression or to hide a lack of talent, the end product tends to not be good.

However, when used as just a set of tools amongst a larger set of skills, in the hands of a talented person, you tend to get great results.

Therefore, widely dismissing all music made with auto tune (or other digital tools) as bad or “elevator music” is narrow minded and uninformed.

I started out in art & design in a pre-digital world. I was damn good with mechanical pencils, rulers, markers, gauche, letter stencils, letraset, and any number of traditional tools.

The second I got the chance to learn AutoCAD, Corel Draw, and then Photoshop and Quark, I took it. Thirty years later I take every opportunity to learn as many digital tools as possible.

They allow me to take my foundational knowledge and experience and be quicker and more efficient.

My students learn all the same foundational knowledge I did, but they get to digital tools much faster than I did. They entirely leap frog most of the analog tools.

They are not worse artists and designers than I am. Many are better. They are simply using the tools that are of this time.

If you don’t understand this distinction, you might be a dinosaur.

No, of course, no.

@eyesoreu: Why, of course no, why?

@cookieman I’d have thought that was obvious, I would have.

@eyesoreu: Apparently not. Please enlighten me.

Cher used is well.
I happened to watch SNL the time Kanye’s auto tune failed. Oof.

@biscuitboy Enlighten, educate?
Okay, because it’s lazy & sounds shit…

@eyesoreu: Very thoughtful. Thank you.

Pushing for clarification on an opinion regarding a fairly bland topic…built your own fire bud.

@eyesoreu: I was honestly hoping your staff would respond for you.

Autotune can really help out when a singer can’t sing very well. I’d rather listen to that than an “off-key” singer.

If they sing off-key what are they doing making recordings? They obviously can’t sing.

Autotune can be effective when used tastefully as an effect. Too often it is used as a crutch by “vocalists” who have no ear or vocal training to sing. If such a thing were available for other instruments (yes the voice _is_an instrument) one could pick up a guitar and sound like Hendrix, or sit at a keyboard and sound like Elton John.

@Strauss Maybe I can finally play the piano…no even autotune isn’t that good lol

@RayaHope There are many electronic keyboards out there that can help you to learn to play. You can sit down and learn how to play a song or even to read music. That’s different from autotune making someone sound as if they’re singing on pitch so that they sound better than they really are.

BTW, welcome to Fluther!

@Strauss Thank you for the warm welcome! I think I’m too dumb to learn how to read music but I always wished I could play the piano and even the drums. I’ve tried in the past and could not get past a horrible rendition of Greensleeves.